Category: Memories
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On A Dusty Street Corner In Juarez
“When you’re lost in the rain, in Juarez, and it’s Easter Time too, And your gravity fails you and your negativity can’t pull you through…” –Bob Dylan Just Like Tom Thumbs Blues Let’s be realistic. You didn’t think I was going to write a blog about crossing the border bridge to visit Juarez, Mexico, and…
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I Heard The Secrets Of The Grackle’s Song
[Image: Google search] A short time ago, perhaps a week, maybe more, I spent a few days in Austin, Texas. We were visiting with a gentleman, William, that I had met during a writers workshop in Westport, New York in October, 2012. He has been a good friend and faithful follower of my blogs since…
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At The Alamo: All The History I Needed Was On My Pajamas
[Source: Google search] I grew up in a time when kids had heroes. Mythic heroes. These days, it seems like anyone who performs his or her duties is a “hero”. It’s fair to say that most children, throughout history, had their own heroes. The ancient Greek boys had their Spartans and the Irish youth had…
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A Silent Eulogy: Late But Heartfelt
Is it possible that a eulogy can take forty-one years to deliver? The dreaded answer is yes. I know because I spoke that eulogy…silently, silently so that only I heard the words. It was a rambling prayer over a heart-breaking death. I knew the young man who had died. In truth, I was with him…
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Dark Roads And Distant Lights
So much of Florida is simply and without question, beautiful. The beaches come to mind. The wetlands of the Everglades are near the top of the list. The seemingly endless forests of the Ocala National Forest are a reminder of what Florida once looked like before Disney, Developers and Big Sugar got their hands on…
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To Let: Site # 143/ A Farewell To The Sunshine State
[As I write this post, Site #143 is occupied] On December 30, 2015, around noon, the radio in our red Ford Escape will begin to emit static. It will crackle and hiss as my favorite country music station fades in strength. Fort Myers will be receding, falling away into the south…into the muggy soupy haze.…
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Coal For Christmas
I am a grandfather now, feeling every ache and sadness of my sixty-eighth year. The stories that my father told me about his father have taken on new meanings. I’m the old one now. I am the carrier of the family history. When a recollection of a family event comes to mind, be it a…
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The Scent Of Christmas Caught Me By Surprise
There is a chain of markets in Florida called Publix. It’s employee-owned and from what I read in the local paper, Wal-Mart hates them. But that’s another story. I was browsing the aisles in my local Publix for some fruit to put in my cereal. I found blueberries but they’re from Peru. Don’t they grow…
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After Dinner/Up In The Sky
When we were kids we called them vaportrails. Now, I call them contrails. Those streaks across the sky made from the jet engines of jet planes. Either term is okay. It’s simply the condensation of the water from the exhaust of the plane, turning into visible water vapor. It wouldn’t be incorrect to say…
